Overview
- Authorities confirmed Monday that the teenage victim long known as Jane Clinton Doe has been identified as 15-year-old Cheryl Lynn Edwards of Waukegan, Illinois through forensic genetic genealogy and law enforcement testing.
- Her remains were found on April 11, 1975, along the Mississippi River near Clinton, Iowa; a 1975 autopsy ruled the death a homicide, found a gunshot wound to the head, and determined she was about 10 weeks pregnant.
- The identification followed work by the DNA Doe Project, which convened genealogists in October 2025 to trace relatives from Louisiana and Wisconsin and match a 1959 San Diego birth record before confirmatory DNA tests were completed this year.
- Investigators say Edwards’s parents are deceased, other family members who had been searching were notified, and the case has shifted from an unidentified remains file to an active homicide investigation.
- The Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and Waukegan police are asking the public for information and offering anonymous tip options, and the case highlights how genetic genealogy is increasingly aiding long-unsolved cold cases.